They Don't Like It Or Want It, But They May Soon Be Leaving L.v.

Lower Saucon Township Councilwoman Priscilla deLeon is anxious to give the state House of Representatives a geography lesson.

Her township is in Northampton County, not Bucks, and she's angry that House members overlooked that boundary when they passed their congressional redistricting plan Wednesday.

"How do you compare the Lehigh Valley to the Philadelphia area?" deLeon asked. "I don't think our voices will be heard."

The plan shifts Lower Saucon and Bethlehem townships into the 8th Congressional District, the domain of U.S. Rep. Peter Kostmayer, and leaves the rest of the Lehigh Valley in the 15th District. If the state Senate passes the plan, it would virtually ensure the two townships a Bucks County congressman for the next decade.

The plan is a political plus for Democrat Kostmayer, who would add two heavily Democratic townships to his district. Bucks County is 57 percent Republican, but Lower Saucon and Bethlehem townships are 61 percent Democratic, House figures show.

But officials in the townships say Kostmayer's gain would come at their expense. They said they don't want to be separated from the rest of the Lehigh Valley.

Ken Platt, Lower Saucon Council president, called the plan upsetting and said it felt like the township had been cut off.

"I hope not, but there's a fear that we'll be disenfranchised," Platt said.

Lower Saucon's council sent a resolution to state Sen. Jeanette Reibman last month, urging her to vote against any plan that would separate the township from the rest of the Lehigh Valley.

Bethlehem Township commissioners passed a similar resolution last night and will also send it to Reibman.

The state Senate, which meets next week, could change the plan substantially.

Allan Robertson, chairman of the Bethlehem Township Board of Commissioners, said the plan makes no sense for the township.

"We have all these ties that are really oriented to this area and we just don't have those kinds of ties to Bucks County," Robertson said.

Bethlehem Township is between Bethlehem and Easton, and Robertson said it seemed wrong for the township to be in a different congressional district from those cities.

Last year, Bethlehem Township was divided into three districts for the state House, and Robertson said the political maneuvering that led to such districting could only undermine residents' confidence in the political system.